www.goodnewsnetwork.org
Birder Sees Sickly Swan in NYC And Bundles it Up For 23-Mile Trek Across Town to Save its Life
Armed with the right training, New York City's Ariel Cordova-Rojas was able to save an injured swan in a responsible manner.
Social & Lifestyle
It takes a lot to phase New Yorkers. Even the sight of a woman schlepping a live swan and lugging a bicycle on the subway didn’t cause much of a stir.
“Nobody seems to be fazed,” Ariel Cordova-Rojas, the swan schlepper told The New York Times. “One man was sitting right in front of me and he’s just on his phone. I don’t even know if he noticed there was a swan in front of him.”
While Cordova-Rojas’ subway appearance might have been dismissed as whimsical performance art by some, she was in fact performing a very real act of mercy. The swan she’d found earlier in the day was ailing and she was determined to get it the help it needed.
Cordova-Rojas faced an arduous journey from Queens, through Brooklyn, to Manhattan’s Wild Bird Fund facility. She started out on foot. Several automobile rides and a stint on public transportation later, she was able to deliver the sick swan to its final destination, the Wild Bird Fund rehabilitation center located on New York City’s Upper West Side.
When she’d headed out for some birdwatching at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens that morning, Cordova-Rojas had no idea of how the day’s events would unfold. Luckily for the infirm female mute swan she encountered, it was a case of the right person being in the right place at the right time.